


Death of a Rat

by Ozzyyy



Series: I Make Misferns Mainstream [3]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, BAMF Niki | Nihachu, But unintentionally, Comfort/Angst, Dissociation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Exile, Family Dynamics, Fluff and Angst, Fox Hybrid Floris | Fundy, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jeffery with 7 J's, Mentioned Alexis | Quackity, Misferns, Niki | Nihachu-centric, Older Sibling Niki | Nihachu, Panic Attacks, President Toby Smith | Tubbo, Protective Siblings, Ranboo has Anxiety, Ranboo-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Sad Floris | Fundy, Sort Of, These two would die for each other and i know that, Younger Sibling Ranboo, emotional support animal jeffery, he's a esa cat, mentioned punz, traitor ranboo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28559334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ozzyyy/pseuds/Ozzyyy
Summary: "You're gone, Ranboo."The words are like a churned knife in his stomach. Sweat springs to his forehead and palms, swallowing thick around his grief."Tubbo--" Ranboo staggers, "I-I know how it looks-- but I swear--" He reaches out a hand with a timid expression, strained grin."No-- No!" Tubbo screeches, slapping away his outstretched palm and wheeling on him, "I'm done with this! I'm done with you! You-- Tommy-- The second either of you get a chance you turn your backs on me! That's enough! I'm done with it!"Tubbo tosses the book at Ranboo's feet, singed but still intact. It flutters open and soaks in the rain.--Someone found and moved Ranboo's book. It turns out it was Tubbo.Festivals never seem to go well for them, Ranboo's not sure why they keep having them.(Or; The curse of bad things happening to decorators for festivals doesn't end with tubbo)
Relationships: Floris | Fundy & Niki | Nihachu, Floris | Fundy & Ranboo, Niki | Nihachu & Ranboo
Series: I Make Misferns Mainstream [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2098674
Comments: 27
Kudos: 542





	Death of a Rat

**Author's Note:**

> tw: panic attacks, dissociation, unsympathetic people up until niki comes along, then there's a huge argument after the dashes which ends not long after, negative self talk
> 
> \--
> 
> (Edit after the festival of 1/5: I was wrong. I didn't want this.)  
> (Edit after Hbomb stream 1/6 pre-festival: I MANIFESTED OH GOD OH NO NIKI MADE THE SAME POINTS--)
> 
> I took Ranboo's very terrified dialogue of losing his book as him with major fuckin' anxiety, because as someone with ptsd, I do that shit too. just talk to yourself to try and fix everything? so here's me beating up poor c!ranboo again because i have one setting and it's *vent fics*. Also Niki and Fundy have unresolved anger issues between them. Because we deserve feral niki.

"You're gone, Ranboo." 

The words are like a churned knife in his stomach. Sweat springs to his forehead and palms, swallowing thick around his grief. 

"Tubbo--" Ranboo staggers, "I-I know how it looks-- but I swear--" He reaches out a hand with a timid expression, strained grin. 

"No-- No!" Tubbo screeches, slapping away his outstretched palm and wheeling on him, "I'm done with this! I'm done with you! You-- Tommy-- The second either of you get a chance you turn your backs on me! That's enough! I'm done with it!" 

Tubbo tosses the book at Ranboo's feet, singed but still intact. It flutters open and soaks in the rain. 

"Tommy didn't tell any of us he was alive, then went and teamed with the one enemy of this country-- and then you went off and did the same goddamn thing! You lied to me, Ranboo! You lied! You looked me in the eyes and said you've not seen Tommy since his exile and you lied!" Tubbo looks furiously at him, running a frustrated hand through his hair. He pinches the bridge of his nose and sits back against the podium. 

Ranboo's breath is caught on his tongue, halfway speaking and halfway broken, "I- I didn't mean to-- I didn't mean to do... I-I was just--" 

"Just what? Anxious? Are you serious?" 

"I didn't know what else to do--" 

"You even act like him, Ranboo. You think it was anxiety that led Techno to shoot me, there, all those fuckin' months ago?" 

He holds back the protest that, yeah, he thinks it was. Because the etching scar on the preisdent's face still curls across his chin and over his nose, pink and shiny. 

"No." He says after a moment. 

"Exactly." Tubbo huffs, letting his eyes shut, "Fundy, I need you to escort Ranboo out of my fucking city." 

"Tubbo--" Fundy pipes up, looking dejectedly between Ranboo and Tubbo, "C'mon man, we have little members as it is--" 

"And I will get rid of all of them if I need to!" Tubbo snarls, puffing up his chest to be face to face with Fundy. An unspoken threat surrounds them like a swirling hurricane. "Escort. Him. Out." 

Fundy stares back at the president with a flurry of emotions, eyes burning, but keeps his mouth screwed shut. He pushes past him, jaw set, and places a hand on Ranboo's shoulder. 

"C'mon. Don't make this hard." Fundy pleads under his breath. 

Ranboo's eyes go wide, "Fundy--" 

"Just go, Ranboo. We'll.... we'll figure something out later." 

Numb, cold, slick with the acidic rain, Ranboo gives into the tug on his arm and lets himself get pulled outside their borders, his home still stock in the center. 

"My... stuff...?" He mumbles, absent from his own head. Nothing felt real, not the voice that came between his lips or the hand he raises to point weakly at the building. 

"Later, man. We'll figure it out." 

"My cat..." It's the least important thing he should be worrying about right now. Jeffery was technically safer in the city than he was following Ranboo into the wild without any armor or tools. But all he could manage to focus himself on was the memory of soft fur under his fingertips. 

"Ranboo," Fundy urges, pushing him a little more into the tree line now, looking over his shoulder in short panicked glances, "Later. Please." 

"My cat." He whimpers. 

"I'll bring him to you, I promise, please--" Ranboo can see out of the fuzzy peripheral that there's an approaching Punz and Quackity, both looking rather intimidating with more weapons then needed for a kid-- "Go!" 

Ranboo takes a staggered step back, blinking at Fundy, before turning on his heel and sprinting into the nearest forest to lose whoever the trailers were.

He barely hears Fundy talking quick to the two encroaching men. 

Steps become stumbles, stumbles becoming tripping in the mud and pushing himself back upwards. It's hard to stay stable, his mind racing with thoughts and memories that slip between his grasp quicker than he'd like to admit. Everything hurts, he knows that. 

Ranboo doesn't focus on his footsteps for a second more and the mistake results in the land below him becoming air beneath his feet, as he races himself right off an edge. Foot falls become a short yelp as he drops into a small, probably creeper made, hole and hits his shoulder hard on the dirt and stone mixture. 

He lets out a small gasp of pain, teeth clacking together as he grits his teeth just as quick. 

He practically throws himself against one of the walls, pressing his back into the sodden dirt, eyes shut tight. He forces himself to breathe through his nose, chest heaving to catch up with the effort he's maintained. This is a panic attack, he knows it's a panic attack-- It's a panic attack, oh god, oh no-- 

Footsteps patter past him above his head, trudging off further into the forest. 

The breath he was holding exhales as soon as he can't hear them anymore. Though, it comes out more like a weak sob. 

His eyes scan the space around him, feeling the cold seep into his bones. He had no idea where he was, who was closest, or if anyone even would. For all he's done, all it's been is betrayal. Too much of a traitor for a city, too little of a traitor for a rebellion. He'd taken everything given to him on a silver platter and wasted it, thrown the plate at the floor not unlike a petulant child. 

He's ruined it. With everything else he touches, it's been ruined. 

"Ranboo!" A voice calls, like a search cry. The higher voice immediately betrays it as Niki, her voice, as well, wrecked with fear. 

"Ranboo? Ranboo!-- Here! Niki, here!" Fundy startles, feet scuffling as he stands at the edge of the pit Ranboo's crawled himself into. His stomach is in knots as he clambers down the wet slide of mud, tripping to kneel by the boy's side. 

Ranboo's face is a mess, tears of the multi-colored variety dripping down his cheeks and staining his white shirt (or what would be white, if not for the caked mud and grass stains). 

"Oh, man," Fundy sighs, rubbing the boy's forearm, "Are you okay?" 

Ranboo doesn't know how to answer that.

Niki's practically sprinting, hopping down into the pit with much less carefulness then Fundy had. She takes his hands, rubbing her thumb across his knuckles like they did when they were kids. 

"Hey, Boo," She whispers, "It's okay. I'm here, you're not alone." 

She looks drenched, head to toe, in rainwater. Her hair was in a messy tangle of a bun behind her head, the remaining strains slick to her skin from the downpour. Her sweater was absolutely ruined, and for some reason-- that's all Ranboo can focus on. That even when someone came to help him, he somehow messed it all up. 

"Why do I keep messing up, Nik?" He mumbles, lip quivering, his shoulders jumping with his small cries. 

"You didn't, 'boo, I swear, you did your best." 

"I hurt-- I hurt everyone." He cries out, exhasperated and exhausted, "I hurt everyone who ever helped-helped me and I can't stop fucking it all up!" 

Fundy physically recoils at the sound of a curse coming from the boy, hand moving to rest on his knee, "That's not true, man, it's not. You didn't mess anything up, Niki's right." 

"I betrayed L'manburg, I betrayed Tommy, I hurt Tubbo, I hurt all of you--" He says, voice hollow, "I can't even- I can't even keep my stupid cat safe-" His heart hurts at the thought of no one feeding Jeffery, still sat in his house. 

"Boo," Niki says, expression looking akin to being slapped, "You didn't hurt me, I'm right here." 

"You gave me everything and I messed it up." 

She holds his shoulders, turning him to look her in the eyes, "Ranboo, you listen to me, alright? You didn't mess anything up. I shouldn't... have left you in that city alone. But I-I thought you'd be safe there. I had... a lot of faith in Tubbo that I shouldn't have. But it doesn't matter, okay? Ranboo? Look at me," She holds his chin and turns him to look at her when his gaze drifts, "It wouldn't matter even if you did ruin stuff. Cause I'd still be here for you, got it?" 

Ranboo nods, sniffling. 

"Okay, can you hold my hand tight?" 

He does, squeezing it. She gives him a reassuring grin and stands, pulling Ranboo up with her. Fundy moves beside him, snaking a hand around his waist and helping support him. 

"I don't live far from here, we can go there for now." Niki gnaws on her lip, assessing the weather and current path to her home. 

"I can't go back," Ranboo slurs out, looking at his ruined shoes, "Tubbo exiled me, 'member?" 

"I don't live in L'manburg." Her face screws up into determined anger, righteous fury, and Fundy is briefly reminded that he really should not be on her bad side. 

Together, they all help the boy across the hills to where Niki's hidden her base. She moves aside the dirt and pushes open a false stone door, a wave of heat hitting the two men with surprising force. 

"I haven't told anyone about this, really. So, don't tell anyone." She adds meekly, beckoning them inside.

The stone inside opens up like a cave, the ceiling swooping far above them. A long stone path divides the room in half, stairs at the front leading to lower portions of the place, to farms or settlements. 

She walks down the center path, fingers trailing across the railings that bracket them. 

"You made all this?" Fundy asks in awe, still half carrying Ranboo as the door shuts behind them. 

"After Wil..." She stops in her tracks, fingers curling dangerously around the railing for a moment before she forces them to relax, "After L'manburg blew up, I knew people might need a place to stay. Safety. Away from war or destruction or... or whatever. This is my solution." She starts walking again, waving her hand upwards towards the crossing support beams above them. Ranboo, dazed, watches several well tended to farms and mining operations pass them by as they follow her. 

"It's not the best, of course," Niki hums, turning down a short staircase to a small wooden home built into the wall, "It's underground and there's not a lot of sunlight-- but it's safe. Puffy and I come down here a lot to hang out without.. well. Both our country's leaders wouldn't be exactly pleased that we talk. But, it does mean I have settlements set up already." 

She opens the wooden door and leads them all inside a warm, cozy, home. You wouldn't know it was under the earth if no one told you, besides the lack of windows. 

A bed is placed in the corner, which Fundy gratefully deposits an exhausted Ranboo into. 

"Out," Niki gestures with her head to the door, "Wait. I'll be there in a second." 

"I want to help!" Fundy's eyebrows furrow, a hand placed protectively on the boy's knee. 

"You've done enough." She scowls back, hardened gaze settling on him. 

Fundy bristles, "You know I can't exactly decline Tubbo--" 

"Out. Side. Now." She hisses, and Ranboo would chuckle at his sister's almost visible steam rolling out of her ears with out pissed she is if he could. 

Fundy's ears flatten against his curled mess of hair and he stands, walking out of the room and shutting the door behind him. 

The warmth is alluring, and Ranboo curls into the blankets Fundy tossed atop him, before Niki jostles him gently.

"Not yet, bud, you gotta change out of that messy shirt." 

He groans, upset, but Ranboo sits up with bleary eyes. 

Niki gives him a kind smile and turns, opening up a chest at the foot of the bed and pulls out a clean set of clothing, though they're not exactly his style. Clearly, it was along the lines of your big sister picking out clothes she thinks would look good on you, but really aren't things you would wear--

She puts it in his arms and he feels the absolute warmth and softness inside the hoodie. 

Alright. Maybe its not so bad. 

"Change into these, and then you can sleep. Try to get some rest, okay?" She presses a kiss to his forehead and he deliriously laughs. It was so much like when they were younger, Niki threatening any kid who looked at his split dual skin wrong. 

She walks out of the room, closing the door behind her. 

Ranboo throws on the dark sweater and shorts, grinning at the sleeves that pass his fingertips. Length and width was hard to balance when it came to clothes, so often times clothes that finally fit him were also baggy as hell. Not that he minded right now, pressing the soft fabric into his skinned palms. 

Now changed, he throws the wet clothes across a chair sat before a small crackling fire and curls up in the bed. He tugs the blanket under his chin and his eyelids droop with the final permission to relax. Niki was nearby, he was far from the city, everything would be okay. 

With the soft sounds of a fire and the distant sound of pacing footsteps, Ranboo lets himself fall asleep. 

\--

"-- You've done nothing but throw him under the bus since day one!"

"I was just joking Niki! I didn't think he'd fuckin' be tossed into the rain!"

"No, you knew exactly what would happen! But that didn't matter did it? Me, Ranboo, Wil--" 

"Don't you dare fucking bring my dad into this--" 

"We were nothing but a means to an end to you!" 

"Did you want me dead, Nik?! Did you want him dead? Cause we would've if I didn't appeal to keep your necks safe!" 

"Don't you fucking dare call me Nik, you lost that privilege when you burnt down our flag--" 

"Not the fucking flag again-- christ-- I had to stay as a spy against Schlatt--" 

"Like you're doing for Tubbo?! For Wilbur? Admit it, Fundy, your motives change the second it becomes convenient for you and expect us to all accept it like you've never hurt us!" 

"It was just a flag--" 

"It was my HOME! You don't get to walk away and excuse all you've done just because you promise you knew different!" 

A silence drifts between the two, Niki's shouts punctuated with a hard sniff. 

"Niki..." 

"Get out." 

"I won't tell anyone you guys are here--" 

"Good. Because otherwise I'd kill you right here and now." 

There's another pause, the air thick with tension, before Fundy snorts, frustrated, and footsteps retreat from Ranboo's door and away. 

The doorknob clicks open and Niki walks in, furious gaze pointed at the steaming bowl of water in her hands looking up to see the wide dual colored eyes of her little brother staring at her. 

"Oh," She says, voice noticeably softer, "Boo, shit-- I'm sorry you had to hear that." 

"Are you alright?" Ranboo croaks out, pushing himself up in bed. Niki hurries over and places the bowl on a side table, coaxing him back to laying down. 

"I'm alright, just a little upset is all." 

"You really tore into him." 

"Yeah. I know." She brushes her hair behind her ear with a sigh, letting her eyes shut for a moment of peace, "Maybe I was too mean. But I stand by what I said, I think. Things shouldn't have gotten this bad, I-I don't know how things fell apart so quickly..." 

Ranboo's hand clasps her's, expression pouring concern. 

"He'll be alright. That fox tends to land on his feet no matter the situation." She hums, pulling a cloth from her overall pocket and dipping it in the water, "Lay your head back, okay? I'm gonna try and wipe off some of the dirt from your face." 

He does, leaning back and letting his eyes shut again. 

She drags the warm cloth across his cheeks and forehead, scrubbing off most dirt and caked mud along his face before taking his hands and wiping off anything stuck in his nails. 

"D'you think they'll ever let me back?" Ranboo says, voice almost a whisper. He doesn't open his eyes, but Niki can tell he's searching. For a place to blame, a person to pin it on, even if it's himself. 

"I don't know, Boo." She replies, "I don't know. If they do I-I'd hope it'd be safe there for you. But if they don't... it... it doesn't matter where you'll be, you'll always be welcome with me, alright?" 

He nods, rubbing his wrist across his now wet eyes. 

She finishes cleaning his knuckles off, being careful around the scuffed palms, and places the cloth back in the muddied bowl of lukewarm water. 

There's a scratching at the door, followed by an annoyed meow. 

"Oh!" Niki perks, complexion warm, "I almost forgot--" 

Ranboo sits upright, eyes wide with excitement. Niki tucks the bowl under her arm and opens the door, letting in a Siamese cat with mismatched blue and brown irises. The cat immediately recognizes his owner and leaps over to Ranboo, sniffing his face with abject interest. 

"Jeffery!" He cheers, petting the cat and feeling the purr vibrate through his hand. 

Niki giggles, "Yeah, he was already in the forest when I found him. Looks like he came looking for you." She coos at the way Ranboo places his forehead on the cat's, grinning ear to ear as he listens to Jeffery's mild meowing complaints. 

He looks up to Niki, "Thank you, seriously." 

"Not a problem. We can go save your other pets tomorrow, Enderchest and such. No one minds me in L'manburg. I'll be in and out before they say anything. I can pick up some of your armor too!" 

"That would be really nice, yeah." He chokes out. Ranboo lifts his arms to her, "Hug?" 

She sets down the bowl once more and embraces him, scratching his scalp tenderly with blunt nails.

"You'll be alright, 'Boo. I know you will." 

"I think I will be too."


End file.
